Should i upgrade or just buy a new Computer?

[Dillinger4]

Should i upgrade or just buy a new Computer?

Gateway G6-400: 400 Mhz PII 320Mb 133Mhz ram. Video card not too sure think its a 16Mb 3dfx Voodoo one of their first cards. Dvd drive no burning or nothing just to watch. 9.48Gb hd.

I mean i don't use my computer to play games(I use my XBox for that) but i would like some better performance out of it. I think the maximum amount of ram my mobo can hold is 512Mb. I thought about putting more memory in but i can't see getting any speed advantages from doing that. Any suggestions?

[dglienna]

i would build a new computer, transferring most of your devices into it. with only a PII, you will be limited in what OS you can reasonably expect it to run, anyways.

[RobDog888]

If you can afford to get a new one I would definately recommend
it. I don't think your going to see much of anything of an
improvement by adding more ram.

I think once you see the difference between your current system
and a newer one you would not be posting this question! I have
a P4 2.8 Ghz w/HT 1.0 Gig dual channel DDR RAM, Dual RAID
Mirrors, one mirror of two 40 Gb EIDE 8 Mb cahce HDs, second
mirror of two 120 Gb SATA HDs. Blazing fast with tons of
programs installed too!!!

[Ideas Man]

Definatly, buy a new computer, forget about upgrading. But if you can wait a little, wait for PCI Express to settle a bit and purchase a motherboard w/ PCI express.

[Dillinger4]

Thanks for the suggestions. What's PCI Express? I am assuming that you are referring to the PCI slots on the mobo. When do you think PCI will be phased out in favor of AGP?

[SLH]

Originally posted by Dilenger4
Thanks for the suggestions. What's PCI Express? I am assuming that you are referring to the PCI slots on the mobo. When do you think PCI will be phased out in favor of AGP?

PIC Express is different from regular PCI.

PCI is slower than AGP which is slower than PCI Express.

[RobDog888]

I say you may not want to wait for PCI Express because you will
still have to wait for the other manufacturers to start making the
PCI Express compatible cards, like for whatever. Besides, newer
mobos usually have almost everything on board now. One
exception would be a sound card if that is something that you
want more performance out of. Network port, USB, Sound, 1394
Firewire port, not too sure what you would need the PCI slots for
anymore? Unless PCI Express is going to replace Video card AGP
slot, but then still have to wait for the VC manufacturers to put
one out?

My $2's.

[Ideas Man]

If you want to future proof it, make sure it has PCI express.

[Dillinger4]

Posted by SLH

PCI is slower than AGP which is slower than PCI Express.

I think AGP might be faster unless i am looking at the specs wrong. According apples doc's on the G5. Three PCI-X slots increasing speeds from 33MHz to 133MHz, and throughput from 266MBps to 2GBps vs the 66MHz AGP 8X with a 533MHz data rate and a maximum bandwidth of 2.1GB per second.

[RobDog888]

Sounds like PIC express slots are slower. 33-133? So depending
on the number of PCI X slots are in use it will slow down? vs AGP
larger throughput and 533 rate. i would think that the video
cards place more demands on data transfer than an standard PCI
slot so they should be faster?

[Ideas Man]

Apple's docs? They got NFI, look at the Intel docs, they developed it. PCI Express is faster than AGP. It is a serial interface whereas PCI is parallel, depending on the slots, for graphics it will be faster if you get a 16x slot or above (Which is how mobo manufacturers are releasing it).